The establishment of an Urban Renewal District is a state of Oregon-sanctioned program intended to give cities a tool to eliminate urban blight. It is administered by the Pendleton Development Commission.

Their emphasis to date has been centered on assisting downtown historic building owners in sprucing up the outsides of their buildings in order to attract new businesses. A quick look around, and most would agree it’s been pretty effective. That’s except for the part about attracting new businesses. In fact, lately, the vacancy rate seems to be growing.

Another part of the program, the second story restoration program to include interior work, was added to encourage building owner to covert empty upper stories into useable space. It was not well received.

The PDC associate director has proposed a new “rejuvenation” program to combine current programs, including both interior and exterior remodeling projects, into one program with larger incentives. Another proposal put forth is to enlarge the current size of the district to include a small area comprised of large historic houses at the bottom of North Main Street. Because of the absence of “urban blight,” this was a bit perplexing. Perhaps the fact that the PDC had approved funding to rebuild Byers Avenue gave residents the idea that this would be a quick way to gain funding for rebuilding the streets in that area.

There is no question that with the combination of recent flood and now the COVID-19 pandemic, many will experience economic hardships like never before. In fact, repercussions are expected to be so severe that the mayor and city council have pulled their support for a city gas tax. Unfortunately, those high water bill increases will continue unabated. Dealing with the looming unemployment issue presents an additional obstacle that should be considered when implementing those rate increases.

Currently, city priorities include a gathering plaza, new gateways to the city on South Main Street and Southeast Court Avenue, new streetlights on Main Street with an irrigation system, and a building “rejuvenating” program to create additional useable retail space to fulfill “public needs” when there’s already an excess. During these trying times, good fiscal discipline and fixing our city’s streets deserve to be priority one if city management is truly concerned about “public needs.”

It’s time to put a stop to planning new projects that must be financed with additional bank loans and get back to the basics. The rest will take care of itself.

Rick Rohde

Pendleton